Sunday, December 21, 2008

This weeks quickie movie reviews

Traitor
House Bunny
Death Race
_____________________

DEATH RACE

This is based on a movie from 1975 called
Death Race 2000.

The '08 version is similar in name only
The original is a cross-country race that gives you points for running down pedestrians.

The 1975 version starring Stallone is satire
2008 version is starring Jason Stathom is just loud,
obnoxious and takes place entirely in a future prison
run by the the stereo type evil prison warden, yawn.

skip it
1 star out of 5
___________________-

HOUSE BUNNY

Anna Faris who is mostly known for the Scary Movie series
stars in House bunny.

House Bunny is surprisingly funny.
Faris is very good at "dumb blonde"
as she is exactly that in this movie.

Faris is a Playboy bunny celebrating her 27 birthday at the Mansion.
The day after she gets a note from Hef telling her it's time
to move out.
Apparently 27 is like 50 something in Bunny years.

Not knowing how to function in the real world
she ends up as house mother at a sorority.

Of course all the girls
are ugly ducklings and become transformed into
beauties.

This won't remind anyone of Animal House but I laughed out loud
a bunch of times.

Worth a rental.

3 1/2 stars out of 5

__________________

Traitor

Don Cheadle is Samir Horn.
As a boy he witnesses the death of his Muslim father by a car bomb.
years Later as an adult Samir is a bomb expert himself,
working with a terrorist group.

Samir is a traitor but you need to watch the entire film to know were his loyalties lie.
The clues are few but they are there.

The movie is worth watching for Don cheadle's performance.
Is Samir a double agent?
Supposedly these undercover people sometimes get confused about their
very own loyalties and that is what makes Traitor work so well.
As we also are confused about Samir's true intentions.

Traitor is a terrific spy thriller.

4 stars out of 5

Friday, December 12, 2008

A FEW EARLY REVIEWS

-----------------------------------------
THE MUMMY 3: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR



Hundreds of years ago an evil Emperor and his army were cursed by a sorceress and turned into stone.

Rick O'Connell and his wife Evelyn are brought in to take a relic,
The Eye of Shangri-La, to China.

The relic is a stone and has the power resurrect the Evil Emperor Han and reveals the secret way to legendary Shangri-la and allow Han to become immortal.
Han is inadvertently resurrected and must be kept from taking the stone to Shangri-la
Of course the O'connoll's son Alex and Evelyn's brother are along for the ride too.
However, they are betrayed by their friend Prof Roger Wilson,
who forces them to give the stone to Emperor Han.


They all make their way to the Himalayas and with the help of a few abominable snowmen (one of the yeti even does a fist pump after dispatching one of the bad guys.)
Fight off the Mummy emperor Han.

Despite the many action sequences this movie is a bit of a bore.
Evelyn was recast with Maria Bello and she is miscast and does a poor imitiation
of Rachel Weisz.

This review is of the Blu-Ray disc so
the special effects are stunning and the sound is thunderous
especially during the marching stone army sequence and the many explosions.

This really doesn't have the charm or the sense of humor the first Mummy or even
to some extant the second Mummy has.

2 1/2 out of 5 stars.

---------------------------------------
BURN AFTER READING

Brad Pitt, John Malkovich and Frances McDormand
star in a confusing mess of a story.

A CIA agent gets demoted so he quits to write his memoir,
his wife is having an affair
with a man who meets woman on the internet.

CIA guy loses the cd of his memoir and it's found by a guy and a woman who work at
a local gym.
they decide to blackmail CIA guy because they think the cd is top secret documents.

He doesn't go for it.
Everything that happens next is pretty convoluted.
All of it depends on chance and coincidence and for the most part doesn't work.

Sure there are some funny moments
but most of it just falls flat.

The subplot of the CIA is pretty good and the punch line ending is funny.
Too bad the rest of the movie doesn't match it.

If this wasn't written and directed by
Joel and Ethan Cohen (No Country For Old Men, Fargo)
I wouldn't likely have given it much of a thought at all.

2 out of 5 stars

Some Quickie Movie Reviews

-------------------------------------------------------------
.
.
STEP BROTHERS

This is a very funny movie.
Think the Brady Bunch, except each parent 
has only one kid and each kid is 40 years old and still lives at home.

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly are the step brothers after
both their parents marry.

Yes they are both about 40 years old but you 
wouldn't know it by the way the act.
They are more like 12 year old kids.

Both these guys are enabled by their parents 
allowing them to stay home that long without jobs or 
just actually becoming adults.

All that changes after the wedding as they now have to
share a room and go out and get jobs.

Their antics during the job interviews and 
both brothers sleepwalking shenanigans are a laugh out loud riot.

3 1/2 out of 5 stars


-------------------------------------------------------------------
MAN ON WIRE (documentary)

This is the story of how a man and his friends
strung a wire form one tower to the other 
of the World Trade Center about 35 years ago.

Even though you know that he has survived 
this feat(he narrates the movie and is interviewed throughout)
You are still mesmerized and on the edge of your seat hoping he doesn't fall.

This movie will probably win for best Doc at the Oscars for this year.
Must See.
4 out of 5 stars.




Saturday, November 29, 2008

What is wrong with people?

When can I just stay in my house and not have to go outside anymore?

Today on the way home I got stuck behind a car that seemed to not want to turn
at an intersection until there was no car coming from the other direction for
about a mile.

So I gave a little "are you going to turn or what" wave.
Ok so she finally went.
Then after the next turn she started driving about 10 mph in a 30 zone.
So I did the little are you going to go or what motion.
This prompted her to slam on the brakes and try to get me to plow into her car.
I was driving somewhat close to her because she was going so slow but not close enough that would cause me to hit her.

She continued on even slower, then slammed her brakes again.
This time she stopped so I tried to go around her and this is when her craziness
came through after she now speeds up and tries to ram me from the side and forced me into the other lane of traffic.

After all that we are both stopped at a stop sign next to each other and she opens her window yelling at me and flicks a cigarette at my car.

Then she gets out of her car, so I yelled at her asking her were she learned how to drive.

After she got out of her car I decided to just go.
She punched my car while i was going away from her.

At this point I look back and see her on her phone so I just figured I better not push it and get out of there.

She looked like she was in her early 20's.
I just don't get what causes people to be this way.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

A Few quick movie reviews

Wall-E 5 stars
Hancock 4 stars
Meet Dave 2 star
Eastern Promises 4 stars
Tropic Thunder 3.5 stars
Sweeney Todd 3.5 stars
.
.

SWEENEY TODD

Another movie directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp.
Basically a horror, revenge, musical.
Who could have known that Depp and Helena Bohnam Carter could sing so well.

I was really surprised how much I liked this.
Usually I could do without a musical, this one was really good.
Almost All the songs worked, and there was plenty of blood.

The ending really came out of the blue for me, I really
never expected that to happen.

3.5 stars out of 5
Recommended


TROPIC THUNDER

Ben Stiller stars in and directs a movie that's a movie within a movie.
Robert Downey Jr. plays, a dude playin', the dude, disguised as another dude!
Downey steats the show as a method actor who
surgically alters his look to look like a black man.

This is a comedy/satire but it also pretty gory being a film about making a war film.
great stuff and a few surprise cameos too.
Any movie that makes fun of Hollywood and does it well is worth a look for me.

3.5 stars out of 5
Recommended

EASTERN PROMISES

Viggo is a driver for the Russian mob.
He is there mostly to clean up the mess the the bosses son keeps getting himself into
but this time he has to clean up the boss's mess.
Seems a diary was found on a young pregnant girl who died during childbirth.
The boss is implicated in a horrific crime in the diary.

Mortenson was nominated for an Oscar as a leading actor and he deserved it.
He was one scary son of a gun in this movie.
He has a fight with two thugs that is not like any other fight scene I've seen before.

This movie is a Must See.
4 out 0f 5 stars


Meet Dave

Eddie Murphy's latest is almost a have to see it to believe it.
Murphy is a spaceship from another world coming here to find a probe that landed months before as they are looking for water to save their home world.

Dave is piloted by an army of tiny aliens and the captain looks just like Eddie Murphy.
While I actually laughed out loud a few times this is just typical slapstick and really just for younger kids or preteens.

2 out of 5 stars

Hancock

Will Smith's most recent summer blockbuster finally comes to dvd.
Smith is John Hancock and has superman like powers but has no idea how he got them or were he's from.

Hancock reluctantly saves the day but usually has to be prompted into action.
At least once by a child on the street who has to wake Hancock from a drunken sleep on a city bench.

Hancock is not the typical hero and always causes much financial damage
everytime he stops the bad guys.

Finally the city has had enough and he has to turn himself in as consequence
for his destructive behavior.

It won't be long before the city needs him again to stop all the rising crime while he's in jail.

So with a new attitude and help from a Public Relation specialist, Jason Bateman,
Hancock learns how to become a real hero.
That's not the end of the story.
He learns someting that he never thought possible.

Any more and it gives away too much.
Hancock is an action movie but it is more then just that.
It's also a character study and an unusual love story.

4 out of 5 stars
Highly recommended

Wall-E

Saving the best for last this week.

Based partly on Chaplin's CITY LIGHTS, this movie is practically a silent film
as there is very little dialog until the second half of the movie.

700 years in the future there are no people left on Earth and only one
little robot, who for 700 years has been trying to clean the planet of all the trash
and junk that has piled up.

A ship soon comes from the sky and another little robot comes out.
It's love at first site for Wall-E and his adventure begins.

EVE, goes back into the ship and Wall-E grabs on and goes for a ride and
an exciting surprise.

Sure it's animated but Wall-E is the best movie I have seen this year.
Wall-E, I think, is the best movie so from from Pixar,
Including both Toy Story movies and The Incredibles.

This is story telling at it's best, with very few spoken words to mess it up.

5 out of 5 stars
Highest Recommendation

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Opus and Bloom County are no more



Opus has come to an end.

A year or so ago Berkeley Breathed mentioned
the end of the Opus strip and something about
killing him off, then he took it back,
said he was just kidding.
Apparently he wasn't kidding at all.

I suppose the last 2 strips
can be left to open interpretation.

For me it's clear what happened.

In the weeks leading up to this,
Opus ended up in a animal shelter with a dog.

Starting with the Aug 31st strip
BB essentially tells Opus his fate.
In that strip BB discusses the circle of life
and Opus notices that other comic
strips went away due to the creators croaking,
BB... "we'll be trying a different circle."


Next he meets Elvis who appears because,
"I hear you'll soon be checking out for good, hound dog"
and advises him on choosing his final place wisely

Through the 3-4 strips after that,
Opus is trying to understand
what he was put on earth to do.


Here realizes his destiny is to take
the place of the dog in the shelter so dog can go free.

Taking Elvis' advice about choosing one's
final resting place wisely,
Opus imagines that after he "goes"
he would like to
be in a happy place,
a warm place, a friendly place.
A beloved children's book.

As Steve Dallas is looking down at the book,
we see a reflection in Steve's glasses
coming from above.
We see a refection of Opus smiling.

So my interpretation is that Opus' life
was ended on the physical sense.
His spiritual being was caste into BB's
children's books to be seen there
and remembered by children for all time.

So don't mourn Opus because
he is in his happiest of all places

A place of his own choosing.





Go back to April and read Opus final adventures.

www.comics.com/opus

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Phillies and Destiny

There is no other sport that has the same feeling
and can create emotion
the way baseball can.

To quote James Earl Jones from Field of Dreams.....

“The one constant through all the years, ..., has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is part of our past, ... It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again.”



Baseball is truly more then simply a "sport" it is a past time, it is a way of life.

I will never enjoy watching any event more then watching baseball.

There is nothing better then seeing my favorite team play my favorite sport
and winning the championship, the World Series.

In the past there have been so called
"teams of destiny" and
I believed in the destiny
of teams in the past.

In 1964 the Phils seemed to be a destiny team.
They had everything going for them that year.
A perfect game on father's day.
The game winning hit and MVP for the all-star game.
Rookie of the year.
Johnny Callison would have been MVP if not for the collapse.
It was all there for their destiny until it all fell apart in 1 week at the end of the season.

The 1983 Phils had a touch of destiny
because this was their 100th season.
they made it to the series that year but couldn't quite get it done.

Again, in 1993 destiny seemed to be with them.
The Phils controlled the East for the entire season after they took first place after their second game, and started 3-0.
They beat the powerful Braves in 6 games but couldn't get past the Blue Jays.

Phillies 2008 edition didn't have the team of destiny feel.
They had a team of purpose feel.
After winning each level of this season, the Eastern Division, the first round
and the NLCS, there was celebration but there was still a sense of purpose.
They always knew they had more to do.
And they did it.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Sunday, October 26, 2008

100 seasons

It has been 25 years since any of the 4 big teams have won the championship in Philadelphia.
that is 100 seasons of sports.
100 full seasons without winning it all.

The Phils are up 3 games to 1 on the Tampa Rays.

There will be those that say they Phils didn't play a real team, an established team.

I don't care.
It wouldn't matter to me if they played a team that stunk
and won a trip to the series in a raffle.

As I'm writing this it is the fifth inning in game 4 and Joe Blanton
just hit a Home run to give the Phils 6-2 lead.

The last time a pitcher homered in a Series game was 1974.

They still have to win this game and then 1 more so I'll stop here and
keep waiting for season One Hundred and One to be the Big One.

Monday, October 20, 2008

World Series 2008 Phillies vs. Rays

Well the Sox almost did perform another miracle.
they are one of 2 teams to come back from a 3-1 deficit.

The Sox have done it 3 times before and almost did it again.

So, here we go.
Phils vs. Rays.

Phils in 6.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Phillies are National league Champs 2008





I'm still not sure if it has sunk in yet.
The Phils are in the World Series.
The Fall Classic.

They have made it to the Series only 5 other times and were able to win it only one time in 1980.

Barring a miracle by the Red Sox it looks like they will be playing the
Tampa Bay Rays.

It's been 25 years since the last title
by Philadelphia team, so I'm always reluctant to give in to the excitement.

During my lifetime I've been witness to
The Phils, 76ers and the Flyers win it all.

The best one was when I watched the Phils win the Series
on the front porch of Charlie Mannings house on a little black and white tv with
a bunch of friends in our old neighborhood Kensington.

The first thing I did was jump off the porch and run up the street to were my best friend was and he came running down and he jumped right up into my arms.

I was 17 years old and this was the first time I was old enough to
understand the feeling of watching your favorite team win the big game.

The Sixers won it 3 years later and that has been it ever since.

I am not going to say that this going to be the Phils turn because
there have been too, too many disappointments.

So I'll just watch and if they lose then it's business as usual.

If they manage to beat the Rays then let the celebration begin.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

BEST BUY saved my butt

It really is true, Best Buy saved me.

I had another iPhone situation this week.

At work my iphone was sitting on the counter
and it suddenly lost the signal
for making and placing calls.
No bars.

So a played around with it for a while, turned it on and off a bunch of times, still no service.

When I got home I used the restore option in iTunes but still no service.

Off to the apple store to speak with an apple "genius"

Just like my previous iphone they looked into
the connector with a microscope and told me
there has been water in the iphone and that's
why i'm having the trouble with the iphone.

Well guess what, there has never been any
water near my iphone at any time
in the 3 weeks I've had the iphone.

My insistence of this fact didn't matter to the "genius" or his boss the manager of the store.
She refused to budge and as before was kind enough to allowme to buy another iphone.

"No thanks" I told her that we need to elevate this to the next level.
All she would come up with was a phone number to Apple's "s.o.s." service line.

Ok so since i did buy the phone at Best Buy I thought i would give that a shot.
Lucky for me they either don't know aout the red dot indicator
or just overlooked it.
They said i could exchange my iPhone for a new one since it was under 30 days.

One half hour later and I had a new 16 gig Iphone.
Thank you Best Buy.

Say what you will about them and their
maligned customer service, it worked today for me.

REVIEW: The Sixth Sense

There is a spoiler in this review so only read if you have seen the movie.

The Sixth sense was just released on Blu-Ray so this has given me a perfect reason to
finally go and watch it again.
I've only been able to watch the 6th Sense fully through once since the day I saw it at the movies.

This is a compliment to the film.
I think the 6the Sense might be a more emotional film while watching it after having already seen it.

Once you have seen the movie and know what the out come is,
re-watching is a very satisfying and interesting experience.

Every single thing that shows you what has happened to Bruce Willis is right on the screen.
You can watch and see every single clue because they are all right there.
There is no cheat in this movie, everything works and it all adds up.
Right there in the movie Osmet tells you what is happening when he says right to Willis,
“I see dead people” and “they don't know there're dead”.
The 6th Sense is so casual in it's pacing that you just don't notice what is happening until the very end.

I feel sad for anybody who figured out the reveal before the end or anyone who claims they did
because it ruins the shock and the feeling of excitement
when you realize it out for the first time.

Also amazing is the performance of Haley Osmet.
It is rare that someone that young can pull off a great performance,
as this one, without looking silly.

Bruce Willis is subdued and almost whispers his entire role,
but it helps everything else around him become even more pronounced.

6th Sense is classified as horror, but there really isn't much in the film that's scary
as much as it is chilling. It's much more then a simple horror flick.

It's hard to say this isn't a perfect movie, I'll give this is 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Plus it is just as good if not better on successive viewings.


The 6th Sense is truly a modern classic.
Watch it once and carefully pay attention, then watch it again and see how it all plays out perfectly.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Wish I thought of it: Garfield edition

So I stumbled on a website that has taken Garfield to
an entirely new level.

Garfield minus Garfield.
From the site...

"Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb."

This is the kind of dark, demented and surreal humor I
look for in Life every day.

Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb."

This is the kind of dark, demented and surreal humor I
look for in Life every day.

http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Perks of the job

The only two good perks of my job at Blockbuster
are getting free movie rentals and the ability
to get new releases one or two weeks before they come out.

This week I have
Run Fat Boy, Run


This was my favorite of the three movies this week.
Simon Pegg is a riot.
I love his deadpan style of comedy.

His Dennis is always running from his problems
including his pregnant fiance' on their wedding day.

It's 5 years later and Dennis wants to win her back.
Problem is Libby has moved on to Whit.
Whit happens to be nearly perfect and runs in marathons for charity.

All Dennis has to do is register and run in the upcoming marathon
to prove that he has changed.
Accept, he is a bit over weight or as he calls himself, "I'm not fat I'm just unfit"
and he is a heavy smoker.
Oh and the race is only 3 weeks away.

So can Dennis run the race, win back Libby, and show his son
he is someone who doesn't run away from problems? We'll See.

This doesn't have the expected neat and tidy normal happy
ending these kind of movies usually get.
It does have an appropriate and very good ending.

4 stars out of 5
****

-------------------------------


Deception


This movie is a stinker
Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor
can't save this one from stinking.
There was nothing deceiving in the movie.
You can see the set up from a mile away.

Even the twist ending wasn't done right.

1 and a half stars out of 5

*1/2
-----------------------------------

Leatherhead

This was a fun movie, but that might what I didn't like about it.
The movie couldn't decide if i was straight drama or a slapstick comedy.
The funny parts were funny and the drama parts were well acted.
I just wanted it to be one or the other.
It just didn't mix.

There really wasn't enough about the history of early football.
Game play was a bit to unrealistic and most of the characters
were just too cartoony and more like caricatures then actual people.

The superstar player switches teams right in the middle of the season
and only because of a casual mention
do we know how he ended up on the other team.

Anyway, John Krasinski from The Office is really good.
He was really funny in License to Wed, can't wait to what he has next.

George Clooney is also in it and he is the director of the movie.
3 1/2 stars out of 5.
***1/2
-------------------------------

I've added a link to a list of every movie I have seen this
year on the Places to go area.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Movie Review: BABY MAMA

Tina Fey is Kate Holbrook.
Kate is 37, a very successful single, Philadelphian business woman and she wants a baby.

She is so desperate to have a baby that she starts to imagine
everyone she sees is a baby.
After many attempts and finding out she has a million to one
shot at getting pregnant due to her "T-shaped uterus"
she decides to hire a surrogate.

After Kate meets her wacky surrogate Angie Ostrowiski(Amy Poehler)
and her just as wacky common law husband(Dax Shepard), the fun starts.

Amy Poehler and Tina Fey are a great match.

Kate is completely sarcastic and Angie is extremely obnoxious
but it works together perfectly.
They were a team for years co-anchoring SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE's "Weekend Update" together and their
on screen chemistry is comedy gold.

Before you know it Angie moves in with Kate.
Soon Kate meats Greg Kennear who is Rob.
Rob runs a local healthy drink shop called Super Fruity.
Kate and Rob seem to have an instant connection.

Look for Steve Martin as Kate's boss.
He's some type of zen master who rewards people
by giving them as much as 5 minutes of uninterrupted eye contact.

This movie takes place in Philly and
There are many shots of the city throughout the film.
Baby Mama is a great showcase for how good Philly can look.
Philly scenery is always a plus for me because I grew
in Philly and love watching the city look
great on the big screen, especially my big screen TV.

Poehler and Fey are a great team and and a legitimate odd couple.
Baby Mama is actually a little touching and Angie,
despite her initial intentions, is a likable character.
Plenty of really good one-liners in the movie from everyone.

There aren't many if any female comedy teams
in the movies these days
so let's hope these two make more together.

I give this 4 stars out of 5.

****

Oh Don't forget to order the Yeast Ball.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Atlanta in October for a week.

Holly and I are going to Atlanta in October to visit her son and his family.

We always like going to the Varsity for hot dogs,
and we've been in Coke World.
This time we hope to get into the Aquarium and see the fishys.

What else in Atlanta should we see?

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

My 13 month old iPhone is shot, Apple guy says sorry for your luck.


I am not a person who will ever curse, use profanity,
but today the Apple store
nearly changed all that.
Sunday night I started to notice that a
"this accessory is not for the iphone"

pop-up note, accept nothing was attached to the iphone.
The next morning I noticed the phone hadn't charged even though it was plugged in all night.
For whatever reason the phone wasn't being connected to the
cord to charge the battery.

All I was getting was a red bar that would blink 3 times and shut down the phone.
So I took it to an apple store.
After blowing air in the connector hole and using a microscope to look in the headphone jack he told me the phone was done.

He insinuated that I had gotten moisture inside the phone by telling me the inside of the headphone jack had some corrosion.
He also pointed out the obvious, being the connector on the phone was no good.
Plus He was kind enough to tell me I was eligible for the $199 new phone "upgrade".

"Right, you mean buy a new iphone."
"well, yes."
"I paid $600 for this phone, have only had it for 13 months
and that's it. I'm out of luck?"

"Yep sorry nothing I can do for you."
Up until tonight I have been preaching about how great this phone is.
Even in a few topics on Home theater Forum I questioned some of those who have complained about the iphone.
Now I'm just super ticked that I apparently have no recourse
on this broken iphone.
The apple store guy essentially just shrugged and said too bad, sorry for your luck.
So I suppose I could go back in and speak with a higher up, but I really don't expect it to make a difference.
I'll see how I feel tomorrow.



So I figure, since everyone and anyone gets to Blog I thought I would too.
More to come.